Bonds of Fate
by c.d.pentagram
Summary: “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” What firstly appears to be a nocturnal walk due to insomnia, turns out to be one of deceiving visions conjured by a dark flower that make Draco believe in Ha
1. A Dream Within a Dream

Summary: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." What firstly appears to be a nocturnal walk due to insomnia, turns out to be one of deceiving visions conjured by a dark flower that make Draco believe in Harry's eternal rejection and betrayal.  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, J.K.Rowling does. And I'm going to 'steel' yet more intellectual property.  
Notes: Many thanks to marley, who read this one first and to every single person, who leaves something for me to read.  
One more thing: If you don't like to read slash stories, then feel free to leave. For this is one.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
Bonds of Fate  
Chapter One: A Dream Within a Dream  
  
~~  
Harry woke with a horrible start, a gasp escaping his parted lips. It took a while before the Hogwarts dormitory materialized around him again. God, he was hugging his tear-wet pillow. He shoved it away and reached out to search for his glasses almost instinctively. He pulled the hangings of his bed open, found the glasses and put them on. Slowly the room focused. The curtains of the other four-posters where still tightly shut. The familiar sound of Neville's snore filled the room making Harry feel a little more comfortable. He let his gaze wander across the room until it went out of the window. It was still very dark outside.  
  
He rested a bit on his bed trying to calm down before he got to his feet and walked over to the window. It was wide open, but to no avail. The air outside was mild, but the thick stone walls of the castle were still hot from the sunlight. But that was quite normal for this end-of-summer time - they'd just started another year of magical education. If he wanted some fresh air he had to get out - no problem, he was already wide awake.  
  
He sighed slightly and returned to his bed to fetch his trunk. The lid flung back. Covered by several clothes was a neatly folded cloak. He took it out of the trunk and spread it admiring its silver glory. Harry put on the cloak and it practically flowed around and down his body. Thus made invisible he walked out of the dormitory down the staircase into the common room. The flames still danced in the fire-place but they were charmed so there was no further heat. Then he descended towards the great oak front doors. The warmth of the castle faded as he stepped out into the grounds. But he had no idea where he should go.  
The moon was waning again, but still nearly full. Its soft light gleamed on the surface of the lake and Harry, somehow attracted by the sight, headed for it. Just then streams of clouds hid the moon, but one could still see so he walked on. The soft grass caressed his skin as his bare feet moved through it. He lost in the warm, comfortable feeling and didn't see that the lake was only a short distance away. The moon was revealed again and now even the raven-haired boy clearly noticed the figure sitting there on a little rock by the lake. Harry pulled the cloak more tightly around himself and slowly approached the figure. It had to be a student for the silhouette was as tiny as Harry's would be. And suddenly he realized the other person. How odd, he had appeared in his dream only minutes before. The way the moonshine mirrored in his smooth silvery hair...  
  
The pale boy had his legs drawn to his chest his arms wrapped around them and rested his chin on the knees. He just stared at the huge moon right in front of him. And, what the..., those sobbing sounds, he was...crying! And why was he outside at this time of night. Wasn't he supposed to be in his dorm? Oh, Harry remembered, just like himself.  
  
/Leave him and go somewhere else./ Just a tiny voice inside his head. Once again he cursed his curiosity and walked on. He cast the cloak aside to prevent Draco from falling right into the lake from shock and walked around the stone to sit beside the other boy. This one turned his head slowly and when he suddenly recognized who was sitting beside him started to wipe his tears furiously as he turned his back.  
  
"Wha-...What are you doing here?" His voice was very uneven.  
  
"About the same as you, I suppose...what's the matter with you?"  
  
"It's none of your business." He snapped back. After a while Draco began to speak again. "Then you must have had some bad dreams..."  
  
And the memory came rushing back into Harry's mind.  
  
//He didn't know how he had come there, but this was actually the Forbidden Forest! And there wasn't any visible way out. Before fear overwhelmed him he started to move. He walked along the narrow path lined by ghostly-looking trees count of time completely lost. No matter whether it was night or day the Forest was hardly lit but with dim beams. But wasn't there some more light right ahead? He suddenly found himself at the edge of a clearing. And there was a strange object in the very middle of it. On a low, curved, pillar-like pedestal stood a stone basin wide and shallow. Ivy crept around it and inside was a fluid greatly resembling normal water. But it couldn't have been ordinary water for as Harry peered into it, the surface began to ripple slightly. And before his eyes appeared a house all calm in the mirror. But something was strange about it. Several hooded figures approached it and walked right through the door. The image zoomed in and Harry knew what was coming next. Knew it from all the bad dreams he had been through, all the stories he had been told about the murder of his own parents. But this one was different. It concentrated so much more on the Dark Wizards, the Death Eaters - especially on one...//  
  
"Did *you* have?" Harry asked although he could figure the answer.  
  
"I told you so, haven't I? But why do you care anyway?"  
  
"Oh, I just wondered whether it has anything to do with...your father?"  
  
Draco wheeled around and his pale eyes widened. /How...? No, that wasn't possible!/ He turned away again and continued staring at the blank sky.  
  
//... a Malfoy. The surface of the fluid moved again in soft ripples and the figures faded - except one. An older Lucius was storming into his son's room not even bothering to knock. "A house-elf found *this* when it cleaned the room! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" He was waving Draco's very precious diary. His worst fears had become true. Missing this very book he had searched the whole room but it was nowhere to be found. The young boy had hoped - had prayed he had just burned it, thrown it away, let it disappear, whatever. But his father laying hands on it... He had been writing down his deepest feels and desires in this book - about the person he had fallen in love with and to increase the embarrassment it had been a boy. Worst of all - Harry Potter!//  
  
Harry followed the other boy's gaze and the memory flooded back again.  
  
//Draco didn't answer and backed away. His father glared at him a malicious flicker in his eyes. When he began to speak again his voice was deadly low. "So, you want to get fucked? Well, you can have it." And he slowly approached his son...  
But Harry bent over the basin couldn't bare it anymore. He closed his eyes to stop the awful vision, but it wouldn't do. He felt tears coming to his eyes and one already rolled across his cheek. Then it left his face and fell right into the fluid. His eyes flew open just that very moment and he saw the stone breaking. He took a step backwards. Another liquid horribly looking like blood emerged from the cracks. Suddenly a chill wind rose. The image began to blur before Harry's eyes and under the rising roar he could still hear Draco screaming...//  
  
This was all he remembered of the dream.  
  
"Do you still mourn for your father? You are supposed to loathe me. Since it was my father wh..." But Draco trailed off there.  
  
This time it was Harry's turn to let his jaw drop. "Is it possible that two people have the same dream?" he whispered more to himself, but the other boy heard it.  
  
"It is." Draco was still watching the moon.  
  
  
//Harry placed a hand on Draco's shoulder sending a shiver through the other boy and turned him round. "I'm not hating anyone because of things his father did. He hurt you far more than me, Draco."  
  
The other boy just stared at him. Harry shot him a startled look.  
  
"You...that was my first name."  
  
"Shouldn't I use i - " But Draco had already pressed his lips against the other boy's. To shocked to resist Harry felt how soft and velvety they were. He was actually enjoying this! But when he noticed the Slytherin's tongue sliding past his parted lips invading his mouth, he somehow managed to retrieve consciousness and rughly pulled away.  
  
Harry wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "What was that for? Dammit, you're my enemy."  
  
"I always wanted to do that."  
  
*Smack* Harry had slapped him right across the face//  
  
  
Hey, Harry had *really* slapped him. He was kneeling in front of him looking somehow concerned. "Oh my, Malfoy. You just sat here like you have been petrified and nothing else could bring you back! Have you already fallen asleep again?"  
  
But Draco didn't answer. "What about going back to the castle? Come on, the cloak would cover both of us."  
~~  
  
The cry of the rooster rang across the school ground. Completly startled by his dream Draco rose this morning...   
  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Yet if hope has flown away  
In a night, or in a day,  
In a vision, or in none,  
Is it therefore the less gone?  
All that we see or seem  
Is but a dream within a dream.  
  
- Edgar Allan Poe (from 'A Dream Within a Dream') 


	2. Back to Where it all Began

Summary: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." What firstly appears to be a nocturnal walk due to insomnia, turns out to be one of deceiving visions conjured by a dark flower that make Draco believe in Harry's eternal rejection and betrayal.  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, J.K.Rowling does. The verses are part of the lyrics taken from the songs "Blood Tears" and "Thorn" by Blind Guardian.  
Notes: Many thanks to marley, who read this one first and to every single person, who leaves something for me to read.  
One more thing: If you don't like to read slash stories, then feel free to leave. For this is one.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
Bonds of Fate  
Chapter Two: Back to Where it all Began  
  
  
Draco could clearly remember the dream. Every little detail he had seen through Harry's eyes returned to his mind. It was a lie. A downright lie. What haunted him most was the image of his father raping him. Lucius had never harmed him. Although Draco at times wished he had, wished he would be the pathetic victim just to have something in common with the Boy Who Lived. Even if it was the pain given by a Death Eater, but famous Potter would never care. Not for him. If Weasley missed a Sickle to a bunch of Chocolate Frogs or if Granger failed to have full marks, noble Potter would be there of course, but if there was something wrong with Malfoy...  
  
He looked around the room. A dungeon, but it was never really cold down here, just now and then a gentle breeze sent the torchlights and candles flickering. Several four-posters stood partly hidden in little alcoves spread all over the room. Complete with cascading velvet hangings in the trademark deep green of their house.   
  
The fair-haired boy swung his legs out of the bed but froze in mid-movement. His eyes had fallen on the picture standing on the little chest beside his bed. He took it and sat back on the bed. Slowly he moved his finger over the smooth surface of the frame tracing the familiar curves of the silver snakes. They wound around the picture just like they moved over so many other Malfoy possessions. And how nicely they fit to the flower inside the frame. Covered with many shadows grew a rose in the picture; lived just behind the glass, unreachable and yet so unbearably near to Draco ...  
  
~~  
  
Delicately patterned wings fluttered as a small creature took flight off a rose blossom. The blonde boy chased the butterfly a little deeper into the garden. Only the shouts of his father to get him back on the path made him turn and search his way back through the maze of flowers. At times he stopped to dip his tiny nose into the sweet fragrance of the blooms.  
At length the plants parted and Draco stepped out into the open. Just then he perceived the building. The little boy could only stare at the impressive manor towering above him. His father smiled and rather dragged him the rest of the way through the garden. Neatly cut trees were scattered all over the grass. And then there were those wonderful rose bushes. The estate was full of them - canary yellow ones, bright orange ones, flaming red ones... The overwhelmed boy had never seen such an ocean of colours before.  
  
They arrived at the door and Lucius reached for the knocker - a perfect ring in the form of a snake. The door opened as if by magic and the blond man stepped in. He turned to his son who still stood on the doorstep gazing at the flowers.  
  
"Come in, Draco. You'll have plenty of time to look at the roses."  
  
Draco did as he was told and entered passing the house-elf, which had just appeared from behind the door. He and his father were led down a long hallway.   
It was the first time Draco was inside the huge manor of his grandfather. Well, maybe he had been here when he was younger, but then he couldn't remember. The hallway was lined with paintings and portraits of his ancestors of his father's line. His mouth fell open as he admired the many decorated golden frames and the impressive carvings on the pillars and the high ceiling. His gaze met a wall ahead. They reached the end of the hallway and followed the elf through an arched passage and up a broad spiral staircase. Draco closely watched his step to avoid tripping over the almost too wide stairs. His eyes left his feet as he stood on the landing only to stare again. The room was two floors high with a beautifully framed window occupying what was almost the whole opposite wall. Again his father smiled knowingly and again he had to drag his son, this time into a room on the left. Judging by the four-poster it was a bedroom.There lay the weary, old Malfoy. Greeting his son and grandson he waved in the direction of the elf and bowing it disappeared with a cracking noise.  
  
Draco stepped beside the bed. His grandfather lifted one hand and gently stroked Draco's silken hair with a tender and almost pitiful smile.  
  
"I have a present for you, my little one." and he looked past Draco. The boy turned and saw another room its door ajar. "Go on, its right ahead on the desk."  
  
Draco entered another room and the first thing he noticed where the many books piled in shelves that reached the ceiling. On the far left there was another door and to his right the shelves parted and a high window could be seen. The beautiful thing that had attracted his attention after a brief glance at the surroundings was standing on the desk and now entirely Draco's. It was a flower, a rose of a color he had never seen before. A shade so deep it was almost black, but when it caught the light in the right way the velvet surface of its petals shimmered crimson. Right now the light streaming in through the open window presented the flower in all its glory. No - this magnificent rose was presenting itself to greet and please its new master. The young boy's eyes wouldn't leave the flower as he advanced towards it.  
  
The room slowly began to blur and dissolve. Shadows wrapped around him till he was swallowed by darkness. Not that he feared it, but he wished he could see just a little bit. Was he still in the room? He didn't know. As he walked on he could hear a faint, distant whisper. Slowly it grew louder. The rose came into view right in front of him and he stopped. He leant closer, raised a hand but let it drop immediately as he saw mist develop from the depth of soft petals. It became thicker, the rose faded and then something materialized between the curtains of what seemed to be liquid air. A blurred, pale female shape with only eyes, her hair the color of highlighted rose blossoms with strands of black and white. Although Draco couldn't see her sing he heard her words:  
  
'Welcome to my realm  
We are both condemned to live  
It's a dark fate  
I can hear your calls...  
...I can hear your calls  
The eternal life'  
  
She stretched her hand out and turned her upper half in an inviting gesture. Draco's gaze followed her movement as she led his eyes towards the darkness behind her. A picture had appeared there. As he stepped closer he realize that it was merely framed glass like a window and peered through the frame. In the darkness beyond sat a boy, small rays of cold light hitting him. He was on his knees and his face wore that expression, faraway and of immense sadness. His head was slightly lifted and the shadows lay around him just like they enfolded Draco. It struck him like a bolt - it was himself, but older. Without warning he felt a deep pain building in his chest. He didn't know what troubled the other boy. No, troubled himself and then the words spilled past his lips:  
  
'And life it shall wane  
Each night I cry in pain  
And blood tears I cry  
Endless grief remained inside'  
  
What had happened to him? Peering into the shadows he clutched the frame. Only when it started to hiss he realized that it was formed of snakes as well, slender creatures of silver with piercing eyes. Their slim, yet strong bodies moved, pointy heads turned to him, unnatural colors flashed in their almond eyes. He stepped back and looked wildly around. The rose - she had to be somewhere but all he could see beside the frame was pitch-blackness. He wanted to scream but his voice didn't obey.  
Although he felt little tingles of panic grabbing him there was a warmth building just behind his navel soothing the little boy. He looked around once more, slowly. Pure and silent black. A hiss made him start violently. The warmth left him and he could almost see it moving to his right. There the woman appeared again, with a smile in her eyes. Relief flooded little Draco, yet he felt uneasy as he walked towards her as the words echoed in his head.  
  
'Come follow me  
And you will see  
How it will be  
When all the pain is gone away'  
  
The shape backed away. Draco didn't want to lose his only guide and quickened his step following once again through the dark. The ground wasn't the even floor of a room any longer. Suddenly he found himself in front of a rock. Without another thought and ,to his own astonishment, without any great difficulty he climbed it. Beyond there was a cleft. Not very wide, but certainly deep. On the other side crouched the woman and she held out her hand. The boy leaned forward and held his hand out as well, he stretched his arm as much as he could, their fingertips were only inches apart when suddenly he heard a distant yell... 


	3. Dark Seed of Evil

Summary: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." What firstly appears to be a nocturnal walk due to insomnia, turns out to be one of deceiving visions conjured by a dark flower that make Draco believe in Harry's eternal rejection and betrayal.  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, J.K.Rowling does.  
Notes: Many thanks to marley, who read this one first and to every single person, who leaves something for me to read.  
One more thing: If you don't like to read slash stories, then feel free to leave. For this is one.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
Bonds of Fate  
Chapter Three: Dark Seed of Evil  
  
  
"I have a present for you, my little one." and he looked past Draco.  
Lucius followed his father's gaze to the door on the left. It was ajar but he could see no more than a high bookshelf through the gap, even as Draco carefully pushed the door further open to fit through. Watching his son disappear he felt a sudden urge to protect him. As he took a few steps towards it, the door shut in his face.  
  
Delicate fingers reached for the doorknob-  
"Lucius..." a soft demand from behind - and turned it. Nothing happened. He shot his father a questioning glance.  
  
"I told Draco to go in, you come here." He gestured for his son to sit down on the bed. The old Malfoy sat up and turned his head looking out of the window to avoid his son's eyes.  
  
"I didn't do it."  
  
"What?" Lucius looked more than puzzled.  
  
"The door. I didn't shut it." Before his son could half formulate a reply he went on. "Neither did Draco."  
  
Lucius watched him intently. "I don't quite understand. Who... wait, has it something to do with Voldemort?"  
  
All at once his father looked straight into his eyes. Reluctance met concerned questiones, swirling beneath the surface. "It has everything to do with Voldemort." came the answer more loudly than intended. Lucius wasn't able to read any of the emotions in the old man' eyes as they returned to the window. He seemed determined not to go on.  
  
"Father?" He didn't move. "Ambrosius, what is it? What's behind this door? Tell me!" Lucius placed his hands on his father's shoulders. "You have to tell me, Ambrosius. Father, please."  
  
He was roughly shoved back. "Calm down, Lucius. I don't have to tell you anything."  
  
Lucius was six years old again, being told off by his father. "Excuse me."  
  
"But I will nevertheless."  
  
Ambrosius seemed to be completely ignoring him, letting silence fall heavily between them. Finally Lucius couldn't bear it any longer. His eyebrows wandered upwards. "Well?"  
  
"When Narcissa was pregnant and Lord Voldemort still powerful, he did a bit of crystal gazing."  
  
"What did he see?" That earned Lucius a glare.  
  
"Well, he didn't exactly tell me, but it involved a certain raven-haired boy."  
  
"Harry Potter! I should have known."  
  
"*Will* you stop interrupting?  
"One day that year he came to visit me. He said he needed one of my roses, turned on his heel and immediately left for the garden to find a fitting one. I went after him and asked what he wanted to do with it. He stopped in front of a fiecely red rose and eyed it with great interest, cupping one flower in his hand. His lips curled into a smile and there was a strange light in his eyes when he finally answered in a low voice."  
  
"'Challenge fate.'" He imitated with the faint hiss so reminicent to Voldemort in his voice. His eyes unfocused as if he was recalling that very moment, before he shook his head and went on.  
"He chose that red rose and cut off a small part with a knife that had been hidden in his robes. Then we went to the dungeons. He asked me to pot the rose and remove all its buds, while he prepared a powder for the enchantment."  
  
Lucius was on the verge of asking why Ambrosius told him all that and what enchantment they had performed, but decided his father wouldn't tell him anyway.  
  
"When all was ready Voldemort took the powder into the palm of his hand and blew it over the plant. It swirled in a silvery cloud around the rose before settling and then the dust literally seeped into the leaves. For an instant nothing happened and I thought it hadn't worked, just as a new bud developed and opened unnaturally fast. The flower was the most beautiful thing I ever saw - although it had almost completely lost the red color."  
  
"It was black." This time Lucius couldn't make out any emotion in his father's eyes as they turned on him again.  
"That very moment Draco opened his eyes to look upon the world for the first time."  
  
Comprehension dawned on the young man and he sprang to his feet. "Don't tell me my son's in there alone with that dark creature!"  
  
"Lucius, I..."  
  
But Lucius was already at the door, ignoring him. He drew his wand and waved it in the direction of the lock, shouting "Alohomora!" There was a click and the door gave way as he pushed it.  
The relief that he had made it so easily into the room left him the moment his eyes connected with his brain and he actually saw what was happening. It ripped a short yell from his lips, something his usual control would never have let out.  
There was his son kneeling on the windowsill with his arm outstretched as if to reach something far out of the window and about to fall. If Draco had heard his yell he didn't react; thankfully, Lucius thought, because then he might have lost his balance indeed.  
  
~~  
  
Draco didn't heed the sound, it was so surreal, so faraway to his ears. All that mattered was the shape on the other side of the abyss, just a fracture of an inch away; so near he could almost feel it on his fingertips, and that it wanted him to follow.  
  
Suddenly he felt himself dragged away with a force he couldn't resist. How was he supposed to fight something he couldn't even see? There was no one near him, he knew it although he never took his eyes from those of the woman, but he definitely felt the pressure of a strong hand on either side of his ribcage steadying him, nevertheless lifting him away. Everything around him faded into nothingness and he couldn't stop it. His mind screamed and kicked about, but his body wouldn't do anything, simply letting everything be, strangely protected in those familiar arms of the sudden intruder.  
  
When the darkness lifted again he could see his father kneeling in front of him. But instead of him Draco's eyes focused the pretty flower that stood behind. Rays of sunlight danced about her. Just then a cloud darkened the sky outside and shadows fell about the rose. This finally released him fully and he fainted into sweet oblivion.  
  
~~  
  
Lucius had rushed to the window and had grabbed the boy, lifting him off the sill. He placed Draco right in front of him, but no matter what he said to him, his son would just stare through him, standing there, stockstill. Suddenly the boy's knees trembled and he collapsed into his father's arms.  
  
Now Lucius saw that Ambrosius had stepped into the door frame. He took his son protectively into his embrace and shot an icy glare at his father.  
  
"I'm not going to keep this ... this 'gift'."  
  
"Oh, it wasn't given to you."  
  
"Neither does Draco. Look at him!  
"What is it good for anyway, to expose him to a creature of such power?"  
  
There was a longer pause as the old Malfoy considered just how much he could tell his son.  
  
"It shall guard him- "  
  
"Well, it didn't do it's job very properly, don't you think? Draco nearly got himself *killed*! It's obvious he was in a trance caused by *this* creature!" He pointed at the rose behind him. "That's not what you'd call a good guard."  
  
"She has a certain life on her own, after all..."  
  
"So, it took a female form. Well, I don't want that creature near my little son with that soul of her's, black as those petals - she *longs* to harm him. You should have chosen a flower of a less passionate color as a medium, don't you think? It seems that Voldemort has underestimated the Dark Arts!" he said all that very fast.  
  
"And you can lecture him there! Don't you dare insult the Lord, son! I don't think you'd like to feel his wrath!" roared Ambrosius.  
  
Lucius flinched noticeably and pressed Draco even more closely to his chest. When he finally cast his eyes down and silence filled the room, his father knew he was defeated. Ambrosius' features softened, but he didn't smile. He looked down at the pale boy, unconscious in the young man's arms, and knew why he himself had tried to resist as well.  
  
It was no good, he couldn't take his words back, they couldn't just get rid of this flower and go on living, they couldn't hide from the Dark Lord. Who was weak but not broken. One day, he would return to see whether Ambrosius had done his homework. And this task had been of particular interest to him. For so long prepared, he wouldn't fail now.  
  
It had been so easy to turn over his own son, who had been more than eager to join their ranks. Now he was officially denying his business as a Death Eater. His own head was dearer to him than his loyality. So it came to pass that Voldemort trusted Ambrosius with the rose, Lucius wouldn't have exposed Draco, his firstborn, his only child, regardless of his words. He had just proved it.  
Now Ambrosius was exposing another young life. But it was all for Draco's best, he kept reminding himself, Draco would be loyal, Draco would remain a Malfoy. Still, wouldn't it suffice...  
  
"It could be arranged to keep it in the dungeons. As long as it stays in one building with my little boy, it'll be alright." He turned and left Lucius cowering in the middle of the vast library.  
  
Draco had woken later on, draped between mountains of cushions, to find that his grandfather was no more. Lucius explained to his son that they had been summoned so he could see them one more time before he died. An elegant hand ran through his silken hair. His mother was there and this made him, more than anything else, feel safe and protected.  
  
When had she arrived? What had happened anyway? His parents' words flowed past him. He felt tired and exhausted. Taking a cushion into his arms he leaned against his mother. He didn't realize he was crying when he drifted of to sleep. A most beautiful rose in his dreams. 


End file.
